If you don’t read local blogs (besides this one), it might be news to you that the 1940 census is available for your casual perusal. Simultaneously, contemporary information is available about a local address, 1067 Tennessee, which is not where I live*, but is pretty close. I could post about the Boassas, who lived in my apartment in 1940 and seemingly owned my building, but why would I want to write about a retired man working as a night watchman, when I could write about a mansion?

Let’s calculate Compound Annual Growth Rate (from 1940) for your convenience:
01/01/40 $2,500
05/23/70 $22,500 900.00% over 30 years is 8% yearly interest.
04/08/08 $615,000 2733.33% over the next 38 years is 9% yearly interest.
03/29/12 $2,100,000 341.46% over the last 4 years is 36% yearly interest!

According to a government calculator:
$2,500 in 1940 could buy $6,929 in 1970.
$6,929 in 1970 could buy $386,375 in 2008.
$2,100,000 in 2010 could buy $136,589 in 1940. $136,589 would buy you 54 houses in 1940 (or 54 houses in 2012 Detroit. Ok, let’s be honest, you could buy 54 Detroits in their entirety, ha ha)

That part of my life where I imagine myself working until the day I die and never owning anything? That’s not a dream, that’s my life, and welcome to it.

$2.1 Million. Ok, 2,495 sq ft? That’s a palace! MILLION.

* if you don’t know exactly where I live, you aren’t trying hard enough.